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This is a rough draft of an article I'm planning to submit to The Libertarian Enterprise. Suggestions welcome.

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Plotting a Second TLE Revolution

In July of 2001, Yale doctoral student Jason Sorens wrote an article for TLE thatsparked a revolution in libertarian thought, more accurately a revolution in libertarian*action.* That revolution is the Free State Project, a movement aimed at recruiting20,000 liberty lovers to New Hampshire for the purpose of downsizing governmentin one state. Events are now unfolding rapidly, with 6,300 pledged to move andat least 70 fire-breathing activists relocated here.

Perhaps now is the time to spark yet another "TLE revolution," one I willhappily credit to L. Neil Smith should it come to fruition. In a recent edition,"El Neil" makes the case for a new approach by the hitherto unsuccessfulLibertarian Party. He suggests they go into a presidential election more or less admittingthey will not win and turning that assumption into a liberating advantage.

As they say, the best army is sometimes the one with something to prove and nothing to lose. Along these lines, Smith argues LP presidential candidatesshould speak the blunt truth of freedom, with such straight-talking abandon thatit shocks the nation into paying attention.

He is not wrong about this, but in fact no one is going to start watching an LPcandidate because she is *saying* new things. People will pay attention only whenshe starts *doing* new things. Visual, risky, exciting things. Things that millions of Americans want to do but can't.

Imagine if we had an LP presidential candidate who would walk up to an IRS officeand spray paint the word "Unconstitutional" on its front door...who joins the Kentucky State Militia for a day of firearms training...who stands in front of the United Nations building with a shotgun in one hand and a burning blue flag in the other...all of these things witnessed and recorded by the press for our world to gape at.

Like Martin Luther King and his lunch counter demonstrators, any brave soul committing such civil disobedience would face jail time and draw the wrathand scorn of millions. But for millions more he would be a shining example. Hewould put a face on liberty and inspire thousands to action, setting them ablazefor freedom. He would return liberty and Constitution to the national discourse.

Does the nation contain such a person? What are the practical problems associatedwith this approach? Would it be possible or better to gain attention without violatingthe law? What would be the precise goal of this "publicity stunt" approach?What kind of limits or "rules of engagement" would be advisable?

I don't have all the answers, but I do have some experiences to draw on from thelibertarian experiment in New Hampshire. Here, where it is easy to get in the newsand where laws are relatively just, civil disobedience has not usually been a necessity.Here, unlike most of America, libertarians have something to lose. But freedomfans here have achieved some of their best results from potentially controversialpublicity stunts.

In December, for example, some of us decided to take advantage of the UN's recent PR woes. I and two friends announced we would torch a UN flag at a local park herein Keene. We invited freedom lovers to attend and wear open-carried pistols (asis legal in New Hampshire but opposed by the UN).

The decision to do this initially provoked sometimes bitter debate between freedom lovershere...some folks who I respect a great deal felt it would result in bad press,that we'd be portrayed as fringe wingnuts (as though that were a bad thing - heh heh). A local leftist group promised to counter-demonstrate,and we were only able to find five people who would commit to attending on our side.

But, in the event, 23 people showed up: 17 freedom lovers, 3 journalists, 1 stoppingpasserby, 2 reserved onlookers and zero counter-protestors. The blue flag blazed,and the PR results were out of all proportion to the event. We earned a mentionon Matt Drudge's national show, a sympathetic one hour interview on local talk radio, dozensof mentions and appearances on other radio programs, two local newspaper articles,four letters-to-the editor. There was a huge discussion about us on FreeRepublic.comand, most importantly, the creation of a wildly successful web forum dedicated to"liberty actions" in New Hampshire (NHunderground.com). In just one month it has become the most active web forum in the entire state, ahub of planning for future and hopefully bigger freedom events.

This single, minor publicity stunt lit a fire that continues to spread around theFree State. It resulted in mostly positive press and did not divide our movement(our most vigorous opponents are now working with us via the new forum, and one of the potential counterdemonstrators has expressed interest in helping us protest the Patriot Act).

For all we know the next event will be a flop; maybe the one after that will too.But each time we will learn and adapt. We proven we can gain attention on our terms. If we've done it once, we can do it again. And so can you.

As I say, to gain attention on a national scale, an LP frontman may have to go furtherthan we have gone. Maybe lawful protests will work for him, maybe they won't. Perhaps one approach would be a 2008 campaign dominated initially by experimentationwith law-abiding publicity stunts, followed later by civil disobedience if appropriate.Perhaps there should be a discussion regarding the types of stunts and "disobediences"that are most likely to capture the public imagination. In any case, the Libertarian Party,and freedom lovers in general, will never attain freedom for anyone by continuingto pursue the failed, boring course of Debatertarian "pretend politics."Freedom requires publicity-generating *action* and an understanding of how to stagemedia-friendly, visual PR events.

Now, if I know the LP...they will simply ignore this advice and continue to blithelywander down the path of ignorable candidacies and boring events. But who's to sayit has to be LP presidential candidates or even LP members who light these fires?Anyone can do it...just like the three of us in Keene. Even the most average citizencan capture the public's imagination if her stunts are interesting enough. BelowI've attached most of the information you need to start a revolution of your own.So what's stopping *you?*

I joked once about running for vice-president for mainly the same reasons -- lots to prove but nothing to lose. There's the argument that resources should be spent on local levels but I wonder if Jessie Ventura was helped more by independents on the local level or Ross Perot and SNL making the 'big two' look like tired institutions a decade prior.

I hope everyone reads this article and gives it some thought.

Thanks Dada.

Logged

Build a man a fire, keep him warm for a day.Set a man of fire, keep him warm his whole life.